Texans' Phillips won't interview for Buccaneers head coaching job

Not long after he met with the media and answered questions about his upcoming interview for the Tampa Bay head-coaching job, Texans defensive coordinator Wade Phillips had second thoughts.

Phillips, who has done an outstanding job in his first season with the Texans, called Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik and withdrew from consideration.

“I explained my reasons to Mark, and he understood,” Phillips said. “The timing just wasn’t right. The truth is I love it here. I love coaching for the Texans. We’ve got something magical going, and we want to keep it going.”

The Texans (11-6) are coming off their 31-10 wild-card playoff victory over Cincinnati. They play a divisional game at Baltimore on Sunday. If they win, they’ll advance to the AFC Championship Game.

“I didn’t want to be a distraction, or a perceived distraction,” Phillips said. “Even though I would have been doing it [interview] on Friday night on my own time, I know some would have blamed me if we didn’t do well and I had interviewed for the job. At some point, you have to decide what you want to do, and I just decided that it’s important for me to be here right now.”